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The MadWifi project is history

The project was run by a team of volunteer developers working on Linux kernel drivers for Wireless LAN devices with Atheros chipsets. We provided three drivers: MadWifi, ath5k and ath9k.

MadWifi once was one of the most advanced WLAN drivers for Linux. Nevertheless, it was never included into the Linux kernel for various reasons. It depended on the so called Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), which long time was available only in binary form due to regulatory concerns. Originating from FreeBSD, it also came with a Linux port of FreeBSD's 802.11 network stack and made use of a dual-license (BSD and GPL2).

At some point in time, MadWifi has been superseded by ath5k and ath9k drivers, which became part of the Linux kernel and are actively developed and improved by the Linux kernel's wireless developers. However, MadWifi still seems to be used in a few research projects.

Where can I get a current version of the MadWifi driver?

There is no thing such as a "current version". MadWifi has been declared legacy in 2007, the last official release happened in early 2008. Since then, work on the MadWifi driver has ceased and it finally has been superseded by other drivers such as ath5k and ath9k.

Regular end users usually look for MadWifi because they found some how-to telling them they need MadWifi to get their Atheros-based WLAN device working. While this was true in the past, it is no longer the preferable way to go. So, if you came here for this very reason, please check this instead.

However, if you are sure that you really need MadWifi for a good reason and know what you are doing, the MadWifi reference edition might be your best bet. See here for further information.

News

Spammers aside, the ticket tracker did not see much activity recently. Most of the few "real" tickets that were opened were in fact support requests, for which the tracker is not suited. And the very few tickets dealing with real bugs or provide patches don't receive any attention from developers, which certainly is frustrating for the reporters.
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We use Trac to manage this website. Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects, written and provided as open source software by Edgewall Software.

This wiki is used to hold all the nifty things that one might want to know about MadWifi. Nearly all content in it can be modified by you, the users of the project. You're welcome to contribute, any help is appreciated.

TracGuide is a valuable resource if you want to become familiar with Trac in general. TracWiki introduces the conecpt of the wiki engine, and WikiFormatting explains the wiki formatting syntax. Last but not least there is a SandBox where you can play around and practice.